Hackers have rooted into a server owned by internet advertising network 24/7 Real Media and used it to serve malware-laced banner ads that tried to circumvent security mechanisms on end users' machines, Symantec researchers said. The malware exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Real Player that was patched on Friday.

Common knowledge dictates that fashion comes in cycles. That rule applies inside Sun Microsystems, although one could argue they're spinning in their own separate mobius when it comes to workstations.
Hey, remember Intel? Sun just did.
Sun announced today it will release its first Intel-based workstation since the late 1980s …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has this month brought out its World Economic Outlook for 2007, and the various heavyweights of financial news have all had their bash at reporting on it. Normally, no vulture would stir on his/her perch over this type of thing - unless, perhaps, Paris Hilton had been implicated in some kind of major economic upthrust - but in this case, the economists make some rather startling pronouncements about technology.

Column
My first response to the idea of a dot-sex web domain was: "Well, that's a rip-off". And when I heard about dot-tv and dot-euro I wasn't the only one to say: "Here we go again..." And I bet most of us were equally cynical about dot-asia.

An Australian "lawyer" is part of a gang of six up before Southwark Crown Court accused of attempting to convince the Bank of England to honour a breathtaking £28bn ($64.83bn) in moody £1,000 and £500,000 notes, AFP reports.

More than 100,000 copies of Transformers on HD DVD were sold on the title's first day of release, the movie's distributor, Paramount Home Entertainment, revealed last night. It went on to sell 90,000 more copies during its first week.

There is some excellent news today for future generations who had until now been condemned to a bleak and meaningless existence without the entertaining presence of multi-talented former jailbird Paris Hilton, viz: the heiress intends to extend her life "by hundreds and thousands of years" in a cryogenic chamber.

The London Olympics of 2012 will be the first to prohibit spectators arriving by car, according to reports. However, some 80,000 officials, athletes and accredited media will be provided with parking - and will have special Soviet-style VIP lanes on important London roads for a period of two months.

Gloucestershire police have confirmed that a 26-year-old Cheltenham man at the centre of an investigation into the website TV-Links was arrested under section 92 of the Trade Mark Act, on suspicion of supplying property with a registered trademark, without permission.

A herd of 40 Indian elephants which quaffed rice wine, "went berserk" as a result and rampaged round a village looking for food, suffered six fatalities after toppling an electricity pole, the West Australian reports.

The Open Document Foundation (ODF) has quietly ended all work on its da Vinci project after failing to secure approval from the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).

Review
So here it is, the new big boy on the block. Replacing the old K800i/K810i at the top of the Sony Ericsson cameraphone family tree, the K850i shoulders quite a burden of expectation. After all, as far as Sony Ericsson is concerned this is pretty much as good as it gets.

Discovery waits for launch. Credit: NASA
The space shuttle Discovery is set to blast off from Florida on its journey to the International Space Station later today, with the launch slated for 11:38am, Eastern Time.
Weather forecasts don't look fantastic, with only a 40 per cent chance of acceptable conditions at the launch …

James Gosling, godfather of the Java programming language, has expounded on the future of JavaFX Mobile, and it's a future which doesn't feature J2ME at all, as the micro edition is phased out over the next decade or so.

The US border patrol will press ahead with plans to enlarge its fleet of unmanned surveillance aircraft, despite embarrassing revelations about the programme which have emerged following a crash last year.

UK business leaders met Chancellor Alistair Darling yesterday to detail their objections to his proposed changes to how capital gains tax is charged. Darling announced the end of taper relief for capital gains in his pre-Budget report two weeks ago.

Multi-room digital music streaming specialist Sonos has finally gone completely wireless. Today, it rolled out the ZoneBridge BR100, a WLAN add-on for the company's ZonePlayer units that replaces the system's last wired link.

Most people seeking a portable gaming system are happy with a Sony PSP. But in the US, where everything’s larger, one company has developed a PC-in-a-box product that unpacks into a three-screen display.

Careless use of Windows folders cost a Scottish student a lengthy prison stretch today, as an Edinburgh High Court Judge sentenced Mohammed Atif Siddique to eight years for possession of terrorism-related items. During his trial the jury had been told by Michael Dickson, a forensics analyst for the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, that Siddique's laptop computer had contained material placed in a Windows folder where it would be difficult for an inexperienced user to find.

A government advisor has suggested that the problem of Brits continuing to smoke themselves to death might be tackled by requiring nicotine addicts to obtain a £200 annual licence, the Telegraph reports.

How do you get the advantages of scripting languages, strong typing, a simple efficient testing regime and a object-oriented development environment? According to Microsoft you plug into one of its esoteric research projects - coming to a Visual Studio near you some time soon.

Facebook users who type sensitive information into a site feature known as Notes may be interested in knowing that it is currently experiencing a bug that allows documents designated as private to be read anyway.